The present invention provides systems and methods for transferring information via a computer network. More particularly, the present invention relates to wireless and/or wireline networks that can be controlled from a central location.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (“IEEE”) promulgated the wireless local area network (“LAN”) standard, in the IEEE 802.11 Working Group. Promulgation of the standard has generated various activities related to the development and implementation of small scale wireless networks and discussions of large scale wireless networks. In typical implementations, wireless access points are provided at various locations that allow a user with a wireless client device to access a network. These wireless access points may include functionality designed to authorize access to the network. Thus, when accessing the network, a wireless client device is authorized at the wireless access point, and then allowed to access various points of the network. Thus, much like the front door to a home, existing networks intuitively provide limited gateway functionality at the entrance point to the network, or the wireless access point. However, such an approach is often either costly, limited in functionality, or both.
Wireless networks can utilize a number of access points 102 depicted in FIG. 1a. As illustrated, access point 102 can include a central point 101 where the access point is implemented, and a radius 103. Radius 103 is the maximum distance at which information can be transferred using access point 102. It has been reported that for an access point 102 operating in compliance with regulations provided by the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”), radius 103 is approximately one thousand, eight hundred feet for outdoor transmission, and approximately nine hundred feet for indoor transmissions. Thus, providing coverage for a large metropolitan area could require thousands, or even tens of thousands of access points arranged as depicted in FIG. 1b. The cost structure for access points makes such an endeavor commercially possible, however, the costs for servicing such a system and obtaining rights to install such a system are prohibitive.
In part to address this significant cost burden, some companies have experimented with high power, point-to-point access points. Such access points, through use of high-gain directional antennas, have been reported to allow transfers from wireless client devices operating as much as twenty miles away. To comply with FCC regulations, such access points are designed to operate as a point-to-point device for one period, then move the direction of the point-to-point beam to a second direction for another period. An example of a high power, point-to-point access point 202 is depicted in FIG. 2. As illustrated, transfers are facilitated over a direction 204a, then a few milliseconds later, the beam is pointed in a direction 204b. As depicted by arc 205, this process is repeated again and again until a three-hundred, sixty degree radius around a central point 201 is completed at direction 204n. Then, the process begins again at direction 204a. As will be appreciated, while the approach reduces the number of access points that must be implemented and serviced, the approach is complex and costly.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for systems and methods that address the aforementioned problems, as well as other limitations of the existing art.